Of the Legends
by 15bubbles
Summary: The years of peace that have lasted long enough for demon kings to fade into legend was earned through sacrifice. The nineteenth demon king, though largely forgotten to history, has left a mark on it that cannot easily be washed away. Before the Legend of the Sun Knight.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: _The Legend of Sun Knight_ belongs to Yu Wo.

This fanfiction contains spoilers. It is recommended that the reader first finish _The Legend of Sun Knight_ before proceeding further.

* * *

 _There are as many legends as the number of people who have ever lived. These paths may intersect and twine, creating the beautiful, complex tapestry known simply as "history." Within this constantly growing piece, there are always a few threads—stories—that stand out, enticing a perceptive eye to follow the paths they trace._

 _This is not one of them. It has never seen the light of day._

* * *

Upon special request, the Cloud Knight was permitted to browse through the library of the Cathedral of the Shadow God.

Slowly, he walked through the shelves and shelves of books. In the dead silence of this library, his footsteps—normally so quiet that they were masked by the slightest noise—could be heard, if anyone else had been there to hear them.

The atmosphere of the Cathedral's library was very different from the library of the Church that he was used to. In the library of the Church of the God of Light, warm, inviting sunlight streamed through the large windows, providing ample illumination for the many visitors who came in search of a book. There were as many chairs as there were shelves, though some of them were merely cushions for the children to sit on. Many times, Demos would find stray books left by the seats, waiting for their readers to return to them upon the next visit.

The Cathedral's library was clearly closer to an archive than a library, keeping its texts cool, dry, and away from damaging light or hands. However, Demos had to marvel at how large a collection the Cathedral of the Shadow God had amassed. There were volumes of dedicated records on the expansion of the lands of darkness and the gradual refinements of the formulas used to calculate their spread. In a section of their own, there were detailed biographies and even diaries of former demon kings. They were ordered from the very first struggle to bring together all three fragments of the vessel, down to a section of empty shelves dedicated to the future leaders of the Cathedral of the Shadow God. It was clear from the dust that additions to the collection were only ever made occasionally.

There was a curiously thin booklet placed where the biographies of the past Demon kings ended. When Demos opened it, he found it was about the current Hell Knight of the Church of the God of Light. Most of the booklet was about what little the Cathedral of the Shadow God had discovered about his background, with some short notes at the end. The notes detailed the brief existence of the twentieth demon king during the awful day that Sun had died, finishing with a summary that the twentieth demon king's reign was brought to a premature end by the Resurrection of one of the other candidates, who later became the demon king in his stead.

Demos put away the booklet.

As he did, he noticed that the neighboring books were mainly about the eighteenth demon king. The nineteenth demon king only had a little more content than the Hell Knight did, despite the fact that one had ruled for years and the other for less than a day. When Demos later asked about this oddity, this was the reply he received:

 _The nineteenth demon king? No one knew anything about him before he assumed the position of demon king. He never spoke. He was a mute who only communicated through his lich and stayed within his room while he was at the Shadow Cathedral._

 _The only noteworthy thing he did was to instigate the Second War of Demon Extermination. Actually… This textbook on the Second War of Demon Extermination holds more significant information on that demon king than the diary entries of the Silent Eagle in charge at the time._

 _You say you've already read this textbook?_

 _Ah. I shouldn't be surprised that you managed to obtain a copy. After all, the Church of the God of Light was the one who declared war on the demon king back then._

 _I'm sorry that I couldn't tell you more. There isn't much to say about such a quiet person._


	2. Chapter 1: Another Prologue

******Chapter 1

 _Several Years Prior_

The lich felt the Shadow God's vessel—specifically, the power that enabled a chosen individual to act as the vessel itself—shatter into pieces once more. Although formless at the moment, she would have smirked if she had lips.

That fool of a demon king had been weak, stupid, and cowardly. The Cathedral subservient to him was even more so. Fearful of the power the demon king held and the mercurial changes in temper that the dark element brought, they did their best to placate the bastard who had stolen her child's rightful throne. That worthless demon king indulged in anything that could catch a human's fancy, and consumed more food, wine, and money than the dark element he was meant bring under control.

As words from the Shadow Cathedral's servants slowly drifted to the container she had been imprisoned in, the smear of shadow that constituted her soul trembled with laughter. For all the ways a demon king could have died… Never suspecting that the concubines he had been provided with would ever dare to raise a hand against him, it had been all too easy for his favorite to slip a little poison into his wine. Heavily intoxicated, he would never have noticed the difference. He probably died as clueless as he had lived.

She continued chuckling to herself for a little while longer. It really was just too funny. A lich's greatest fear was having their child die prematurely. During the candidates' battles, a lich was helpless to do more than offer advice their child. The prohibition engraved in their bones prevented them from sabotaging another candidate directly. Once their child was demon king, this stipulation no longer was a hindrance. Heroes and traitors could be dealt with directly, and as long as the dark element was plentiful, the demon king couldn't be touched. However, the lich of this demon king seemingly hadn't expected that a single, hot-headed woman would be willing to risk throwing the world into darkness just to exact her revenge. It truly was a pity that the brave woman would definitely be punished by the Cathedral of the Shadow God as a lesson to future concubines.

A little later, the Silent Eagle approached her sealed container and deferentially removed the bindings. This act in itself was further confirmation of the king's death. The Cathedral could watch her struggle, and play favorites to ensure the candidate that they wanted was chosen, but she was still a fragment of the Shadow God they worshipped, and vital to their future. They could not keep her sealed for long.

As she soared free into the night, she passed over vast stretches of lands of darkness. The eighteenth demon king had only been the latest in a succession of ineffectual demon kings. Rarely stepping beyond the gates of the resplendent Shadow Cathedral, they had done little to keep the dark element in check. But that wasn't such a bad thing.

The need for a new demon king was dictated by the amount of dark element left to be used. At this rate, it would only be a decade or two until the battle for the candidacy would begin again. And this time, she would ensure that her child would be the one to take the throne as the nineteenth demon king.

* * *

A/N: Sorry. You were going to get to meet an actual demon king candidate, but then I realized that any demon king with a functioning brain would seal his rivals' liches to prevent them from taking revenge later. Spells don't seem to fade upon the caster's death, so the only way a lich would be able to be unsealed is probably through external help. Since the Cathedral needs the liches to help select a demon king, it makes the most sense for them to release a lich when a demon king is no longer reigning. It was also a good opportunity to squeeze in more relatively unnecessary exposition.


	3. Dust

****** Chapter 2: Dust

It came as no surprise to anyone that the coal mine was abandoned.

The coal output each year dwindled further and further. As they had to dig deeper, the casualties mounted higher and higher.

Few wanted to work in the mines. Death and dust clung to everything. Whispery puffs blew up with each step to resettle even more firmly onto the living trespassers. Black dust engrained into the etchings of their worn hands and creases of their faces, the mine's inhabitants could never cast off the shadows their work left on them.

And when they tried to wash away their past, when they fled that abysmal place first in trickles, then in torrents, they left behind a child covered in the coal dust. It was a child as crooked and bent as a plant that had sprouted in the dark.

They loathed the child. Drawing near it gave people a sense of _wrongness_. It was the same feeling they hated the most about the mine. It was the feeling of the dust that came off so easily, covering everything they touched, yet would never come off completely no matter how hard they scrubbed. Bent and stunted from pulling the carts and covered with dust, the child was a constant reminder of the monstrosities the mine could produce.

They whispered that it was an unlucky child. It had wandered in, several years ago, back when working the mines was harsh, but still allowed a person to live. No one was willing to—God of Light forbid—take the child in as one of their own, but it was only fair to allow the child the chance to survive by working for its own food. They were charitable people. They wouldn't condemn a child to its death.

So the child grew up living in the mines. Whenever the charitable people remembered to feed it, the food it crammed into its mouth was covered in coal dust. It never spoke much, not even to give thanks for the food. Lungs that had constantly inhaled fine particles of dust couldn't support the laborious effort of speech for long. Sleeping just required finding the darkest corner to hide in, to avoid being kicked awake by a miner too soon.

The miners were scared of the ghosts of their fellow workers who had perished before them. But they didn't seem to notice that skeletons of a different sort were hidden in the rocks. The imprints of plants and animals had been left behind. An entire long-dead world had been compressed into one mass grave. The child could feel it.

He thought the others could too. Whenever they had to pick a new direction to tunnel in, having exhausted the previous vein, they always picked the direction away from the long-dead feeling. Then they complained about how the mine had to be almost all played out.

There were masses of coal left in the mine. They just didn't seem to want to find it. Maybe they were repulsed by it in the same way that they were repulsed by the child. The miners hated the coal dust that settled on everything. The child had long discovered that he attracted the dust. It clung to him, more strongly than it did to any of the others, but it felt natural and comfortable. The others called the layer of dust a suffocating second skin they couldn't ignore.

First in trickles, then in torrents, the miners tried to wash away the remains of their previous lives and search for a life in the blessed sunlight.

The child didn't mind. With fewer miners around, he could sleep longer in the darkest corners of the mine.


	4. Hiatus Notice

A/N: After sitting and thinking and standing up and thinking and sitting back down to think again, I realized...

The main character is mind-numbingly boring. (Also, I fret over small details too much.)

This means a few things for this fanfic.

1\. If this A/N disappears after a while and is replaced by a new chapter, I've decided to continue the story with this main character because I figured out a way to revise him.

2\. If another story similar to this one appears, it means that I've decided to restart the story with a different main character (probably a character originally intended to be a side character.)

3\. Worst case scenario: I'm too lazy to write up the story, or while I'm fretting over small details, I decide that the plot contradicts itself too much and abandon it entirely. If it's been a year since this A/N was posted and this post is still available, although there is no similar story up, assume the worst.

Since this story doesn't deal with familiar characters from _The Legend of Sun Knight_ , it can only be either an amazing story or a completely lackluster one. Forgive me for shying away from the monumental task of creating a story worth your time.

I hope I'll be back soon.


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